Microsoft Marketing Protégé 2010 Case Study Brief

microsoft.com.au/protege In a nutshell

• Your task is to show us, via a written submission (e.g. • If your submission is judged the best, you’ll become PowerPoint presentation, Microsoft Word document the Microsoft 2010 Marketing Protégé(s), winning or similar), how you would market the new Microsoft one month’s paid work experience and mentoring Office 2010 software to tertiary students. If you feel a at Microsoft. Now that’s some advantage to have written submission isn’t enough to contain all of your on your CV. fantastic ideas, you are free to support your written • Please read the full terms and conditions before submission with additional supporting materials (please entering. This Case Study Brief forms part of the take note of the final submission file restrictions). terms and conditions. We will not accept videos or any other multimedia instead of a written submission, but these can be included as supporting materials.

• You will lodge your written submission through the competition website (judging criteria can be found towards the end of the brief). Your written submission can be a marketing campaign document, a communications plan, a promotional strategy, or even a social media strategy as long as you address the judging criteria.

• You can enter on your own or in a team (ideally of no more than 3, as the first prize consists of one month’s paid work experience for 3 people; see Terms and Conditions for further details).

• Microsoft will judge entries based on the written submission, and choose up to 65 entries from across Australia to present to a Microsoft judging panel. The top 6 entries will be asked to present to senior executives at Microsoft, Wunderman (part of the Young & Rubicam network of advertising, marketing and consulting companies) and other senior marketing executives to compete for the grand prize.

microsoft.com.au/protege Background The Competition

Microsoft® Office was first introduced in 1989. Since then, Since Microsoft Office launched in 1989, it has become it has become has become the world’s leading suite of one of the world’s leading personal productivity suites. ‘personal productivity’ tools for computer users. However, Microsoft has seen some emerging competitive threats which include: Microsoft Office consists of a ‘suite’ of applications that help computer users be more productive in all OpenOffice kinds of ways. Some of the best known of these www.openoffice.org applications include: Google Apps • Microsoft Word – for word processing and creating www.google.com.au/apps great looking documents Apple iWork • Microsoft Excel® – for creating spreadsheets and www.apple.com/iwork financial documents

• Microsoft PowerPoint® – for creating great-looking presentations

In 2010 Microsoft will launch Microsoft Office 2010, the latest version of the Microsoft Office suite. Office 2010 will be groundbreaking, as it is the first version of Office to make use of the Web. Office Web Apps is the online companion to Microsoft Office, giving the user the freedom to access, edit, and share Microsoft Office documents from virtually anywhere.

Microsoft Office 2010 will enable students to use Office virtually anywhere and get more done. It will integrate the technology of the PC, phone and browser through Office Web Apps and give students the most comprehensive suite of applications to help them make the most of their time and effort.

microsoft.com.au/protege The Target Audience

• The Tertiary education student market in Australia is At the same time, of all students sampled, only 50 percent made of 1,029,846 students of whom 55.2 per cent would consider an upgrade (possibly because they are are female.(2) (3) unaware of the potential benefits – or consider legitimate software to be too expensive).(4) • 68 percent own a desktop computer and 64 percent own a laptop.(4) For an audience who are really into having the latest things – including fashion and music – it’s interesting that • 23 percent don’t buy a new computer until their old so many are prepared to use ‘out of date’ software. one breaks down, or becomes too old to do the job.(4) 61 percent of students openly admit to piracy as the • Not surprisingly, our target audience are pretty price preferred way of acquiring software.(4) sensitive. When it comes to buying a computer, Marketing Microsoft Office to students 98 per cent of students believe that price is important. For the last few years Microsoft has marketed academically • At the same time 47 per cent do not factor software focussed versions of Microsoft Office software in a student into their budget – probably because they rely on pirate friendly fashion. copies from their mates.(4) In 2007, 2008 and 2009 the full packaged product (FPP) • Before buying new software, 77 per cent of students talk of Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 was offered to Australian to a friend or family member who knows a bit about IT Uni and TAFE students for just $75 (Recommended Retail and whose opinion they trust. (4) Price) through the ‘it’s not cheating’ program. How they relate to the category and product That recommended retail price is 90% OFF the Compared to all other users of personal productivity recommended retail price (RRP). software, students are the most likely to use and prefer Purchases were limited to 1 per qualified student. Microsoft Office. In fact 90% of students use Microsoft Office regularly (versus 55% of home users and 70% of To date, this approach has been very successful, generat- small business users) – probably because they need it to ing a 20 percent increase in sales year-on-year from 2008 tackle essays and assignments.(1) to 2009, and a 43 percent increase from 2009 to 2010.(5)

You could say they can’t live without it. The ‘it’s not cheating’ program will supply Office 2010 when it is released. Your submission can either choose to However, the majority of tertiary students use out of date build on this program in some way or disregard it entirely. versions. Just 30% use the current latest version: Office 2007. The remainder use earlier versions that lack the For more information about the ‘it’s not cheating’ program latest features.(4) visit www.itsnotcheating.com.au

microsoft.com.au/protege The Product

Microsoft has added a whole bunch of new features to among their peers. Photo and video editing tools are now Office 2010 that will help students be more productive and present in PowerPoint 2010, which gives the student the efficient in their studies. The following is an overview of key ability to trim a video clip, turn a colour film into black and product features and benefits for students. white, add artistic effects to photos and more, without the need for expensive third-party tools. Office 2010 can be used virtually anywhere. No longer will students ever have to worry about losing their work by Office 2010 is a first class collaboration tool. Students are misplacing their USB drives, as Office is now on the Web. often asked to work on group reports and generally this Office Web Apps are the online companions to Microsoft places an administrative overhead on the group, as they Word, Excel and PowerPoint that will let students review need to ensure the report is coherent and makes sense and make light edits to documents from a supported given the group input. Office 2010 removes this Web browser. administrative work as students now have the ability to co-author documents at the same time. Office 2010 provides tools that help students ace their subjects. Presentations are a way of life for all students and Below is a comparison table between Office 2010 has made it easy for the student to stand out Office 2007 and Office 2010.

Office 2007 Office 2010 View and edit Office documents with a Not possible. With Office Web Apps 2010 - online Web browser. companions to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote - you can review and make light edits to documents from a supported Web browser.

Work on Office documents With Microsoft Office OneNote 2007® The co-authoring feature in Word, PowerPoint, simultaneously. people who are geographically and OneNote supports simultaneous editing, separated can work together in real so that the administrative workload of team time through a Live Sharing Session, or collaboration is reduced. In OneNote 2010, a Shared notebook. Shared notebooks new content is automatically highlighted when can be stored anywhere that others multiple users work on a shared notebook, so can access them. users see the latest changes upon opening.

Edit videos from within PowerPoint. Not Possible With the photo- and video-editing tools in PowerPoint 2010, users can trim a video clip, bookmark it, turn a colour film into black and white, add artistic effects to photos, and more. They can also compress media to make file sizes smaller.

microsoft.com.au/protege The Product The Challenge

When Office 2010 is released, students will be able If you had free reign over the Microsoft Office to obtain the product by purchasing boxed software product, brand and everything in between, how (full packaged product or FPP) from a retailer, or would you respond to the following challenge? purchasing a computer with Office 2010 pre-installed. Create demand for Microsoft Office 2010 The latter method is also referred to as an Original amongst the Australian tertiary student audience Equipment Manufacturer or OEM. (University and TAFE students). There is lot more to Office than we’ve been able to • Encourage the student audience to use the latest include above. Why not give yourself a challenge and Microsoft Office software to grow market share use Office 2010 to create the written response and PowerPoint presentation for this competition? • Encourage students with existing Microsoft Office products to upgrade • Encourage students using pirated Microsoft Office software to switch to legitimate versions

• Compete against emerging competitors, including OpenOffice, GoogleApps and iWork

Your response should discuss the following:

• The Target Audience • The idea and (if applicable) execution strategy to drive student upgrades to Microsoft Office 2010

If you are stuck for ideas on what to present, or how to approach the problem, think about the following:

• The 4 Ps of marketing (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) • How do the benefits of the product meet the needs of the target audience? • How do the target audience relate to the category? • Genuine vs. pirated software • Social media • Viral marketing/buzz microsoft.com.au/protege Registration Judging www.microsoft.com.au/protege There will be three rounds of judging.

We recommend a team of up to 3 members for this First round challenge. Register your team on our Web site In the first round, all written submissions will be judged. www.microsoft.com.au/protege and follow the instructions. Up to 65 entries will be selected to proceed to the You may form teams where individuals study at different semi-finals presentations (second round). Australian universities if you wish. Second round Submission Second round judging will require the finalists to present in front of executives of Microsoft and Wunderman for a maximum of ten (10) minutes, followed by up to five (5) Final submissions are due before 11.59PM on 23 May minutes of questions from the panel. 2010. Final submissions will only be accepted via the Third round submission tool on the Web site. Your response may consist of multiple files. The top 6 entries selected from the semi-final presentations will proceed to the grand final presentations (third and final round). The individuals of the winning team in the grand final will be awarded the title of Microsoft Marketing Protégé(s) 2010. All registered teams who make written submissions will be notified of their success in each round via email to the addresses supplied in the initial registration process.

Scores will be awarded in each round according to the Judging Guidelines set out below. Each round will be judged separately and scores awarded in previous rounds will not be included in that round’s scores. Announcement of the final winning team will be made on 15 June 2010 and news of the winning team along with an executive summary of the submission will be posted on the Web site.

For more details please read the terms and conditions on the Web site carefully.

microsoft.com.au/protege Judging Guidelines

In each round of judging, both the submission(s) Each of the criteria will be given a score between accepted on the competition Web site and the 1 – 10, where 1 is completely unacceptable, 5 is average presentation will be judged against 5 distinct criteria, and 10 is ultimate excellence. which have different weights: • 1 - 3 = ‘Did not address’ through to • Understanding of the Audience (25%) ‘Response failed to meet’ performance expectations Demonstrate your insights on the Australian • 3 - 6 = Average or expected performance university student audience either with primary or secondary research • 7 - 10 = ‘begins to exceed’ through to ‘far exceeds’ performance expectations • Demonstration of Impact (25%) Think about the short and long term consequences of In each round, the team score is calculated by summing your idea when it is in market and the opportunity costs together each of the criteria’s score. The maximum if Microsoft does not invest in your recommendation. possible score any team can achieve in each round is 100.

• Innovation (25%) Impress us with your out-of-the-box thinking. Whether it be focused on the fundamental idea behind your response, how it is executed, or simply the message you plan to tell students.

• Methodology/Analysis (10%)

• Presentation (15%)

microsoft.com.au/protege Judging Guidelines

Best of luck!! For more information please visit the Understanding of Audience 25% Web site, which will be updated with responses to Quality of research - depth & breadth frequently asked questions from time to time until the final submission date Relevance of research to the original brief

Demonstration of Impact 25%

Clarity of Results

Potential/actual business impact of research

Innovation 25%

Originality

Innovation and creativity of solution

Other special ‘oomph!’

Methodology/Analysis 10%

Research was appropriately applied to the issue presented

Depth of design of the solution

Justification of approach

Guideline for promoting implementation

Presentation 15%

Organisation of materials

Completeness of materials

Clarity of entry

Score Out of 100%

microsoft.com.au/protege Appendices

Microsoft Office committed to our customers and partners and have a passion for technology. We take on big challenges, Microsoft Office holds the dominant position in personal and pride ourselves on seeing them through. We hold productivity software, with market share at 96 percent ourselves accountable to our customers, shareholders, worldwide and 95 percent in Australia. partners, and employees by honouring our commitments, First introduced in 1989, Microsoft Office has 7 version providing results, and striving for the highest quality. releases (Office for Windows 3.0, Office 95, Office 97, The company was founded in 1975, to develop and sell Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003 and Office 2007) since BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. Microsoft rose to then. The latest version in the market currently is Office become industry leaders in the home computer operating 2007 with Office 2010 available in BETA version. system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed Microsoft Corporation by the Windows line of operating systems. Many of its products have achieved near-ubiquity in the desktop Over 14,000 Australian businesses sell, implement, computer market. Microsoft is present in other markets; maintain or develop technology solutions running on with assets such as the MSNBC cable television network, Microsoft platforms. and the MSN Internet portal. Microsoft also markets both At Microsoft, we’re motivated and inspired every day computer hardware products such as the Microsoft mouse by how our customers use our software to find creative and the Microsoft Natural keyboard, as well as home solutions to business problems, develop breakthrough entertainment products such as the Xbox, Xbox 360 and ideas, and stay connected to what’s most important to Zune Video Marketplace. The company’s initial public them. Thirty years ago, Microsoft began with a dream stock offering (IPO) was in 1986; the ensuing rise of the of a computer on every desk and in every home. Today, company’s stock price has made four billionaires and an for the more than 1 billion people we’ve reached, life has estimated 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees. changed profoundly. Microsoft has helped people and The Australian subsidiary was founded in 1983 employing businesses throughout the world realise their full potential only 20 people. Today, Microsoft Australia employs over by developing, manufacturing, licensing, and supporting 800 people working in capital cities across Australia, as well a wide range of software products for computing devices. as ninemsn (a PBL and Microsoft joint venture). Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, our most familiar products are our Windows operating system and REFERENCES: Microsoft Office software, but the Microsoft product range 1. Source: Alex Chen, Andrea Harrison, Michael Adams (2009) ‘Edu Tracker’ November. Research commissioned by Microsoft. now includes browsers, mobile phone software, and online 2. Source: Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. services just to name a few. As a company, and as Numbers for Full Year 2007. 3. Source: AC Nielson Panorama Survey, via www.studentmarketing.com.au individuals, we value integrity, honesty, openness, 4. Source: PC Purchase Process, 5th Dimension Research and Consulting. personal excellence, constructive self-criticism, continual Research commissioned by Microsoft. 5. Source: Student Hero (Total Sales) 2009 self-improvement, and mutual respect. We are microsoft.com.au/protege